Question: Are battery-operated smoke alarms compliant for our class 2 building? If not, who is responsible for the cost of the upgrade?
I am the secretary of our strata committee. Our building is six years old. We do not have a sophisticated safety system, with no central fire panel.
We are not required to submit a fire safety statement to the Council. However, we’re committed to ensuring we have all the safety measures and that they are routinely inspected.
We’ve been told that seven of our 27 units need to upgrade their power switchboard to install a hardwired smoke alarm and that battery-operated alarms are no longer permitted. For our class 2 building, are battery-operated smoke alarms compliant? If not, who is responsible for the cost of the upgrade?
Answer: If the smoke alarms are not listed on the Schedule of Essential Fire Safety Measures, battery-only devices are permitted, and the responsibility lies with the lot owner.
If the smoke alarms are not listed on the Schedule of Essential Fire Safety Measures (or approvals docs) for that building, then they can be battery-only devices and the responsibility lies with the lot owner.
If smoke alarms or BCA E2.2a are listed on any approval documents, they are required to be hardwired and generally regarded as common property.
Irrespective of the two possibilities above, having a working smoke alarm is the responsibility of every lot owner – even more so if they are a landlord.
This post appears in Strata News #677.
Rob Broadhead 2020 Fire Protection E: rob.broadhead@2020fire.com.au P: 1300 340 210